Monday, June 21, 2010

Visiting season

My friend Kate was here visiting over the weekend. She was in town for work and then she extended her business trip so we could spend time together. It was awesome. We got manicures, and ate Mexican food, and watched Bend It Like Beckham, and grilled, and drove through the mountains, and played cards, and talked. The talking was the best part, obviously. The worst part was that it was only one weekend. But another perk is that this business trip should be an annual thing for her, so I'll definitely get to see her again next year. I heart Kate so much.

I dropped her off at the airport last night, and I picked up my dad at the same time. He arrived less than an hour after I got to the airport to drop Kate off. It was very convenient timing. Plus, he arrived on Father's Day, and it's rare that I actually see my parents in person on these holidays, so that was a nice perk. Now my dad is staying with us until Wednesday. He and Torsten are mostly working, but obviously I get to hang out with him too.

Torsten's parents arrive in eight days, and will be staying for three weeks. Luckily we will not have guests this upcoming weekend, because we will need to spend the entire weekend cleaning. We make sure our house is decently neat before any guests stay, but Kate and my dad are a very different type of guest from Torsten's parents. Torsten's parents require baseboard scrubbing before their arrival.

And, of course, his mother will redo all our work when she gets here, so really it's pointless, except that we would prefer that she not die of a stroke when she first sees our house. Which really is not that messy, I swear. But it's a matter of perspective, and I have never seen a speck of dust in Torsten's parents' house, ever. Truly, ever. And they only come to visit every couple years or so, and they've never seen our house, so we would like it to be somewhat presentable (to their standards, not ours) the first time they see it.

So, yes. We are busy. But it is lovely, really, seeing people, and finally having the kind of home where we can host guests without having to set up a mattress on the living room floor. Guests have their own bedroom, with a proper bed in it, and their own bathroom that they don't have to share with anyone. It's like a real adult house we live in here, the kind that other people actually like to come stay in, and it's so nice to have that.

Plus, it's good to have a reason to clean the baseboards every year or two, right?

Hooray for Bend it Like Beckham and fathers on Father's Day! I hear you about the cleaning--few things send me into cleaning spasms like Parental Visits. Good luck! And hey, it'll give his mother something to do, right? ;)

ha, unfortunately my OWN mom is the "clean baseboards before she visits" type (and yes, i have cleaned my baseboards before every one of her visits). it's at least good they get cleaned occasionally, this way. at least that's what i tell myself while i'm on my hands and knees, cursing at the baseboards :-)

Oh, we're doing the same thing before Jason's parents are here staying with us in the summer. They don't do well with animals (have never owned one, how strange is that?) so we'll be scrubbing everything for days beforehand to try and get rid of some of Oscar's dustbunnies. ;-)

My house gets cleaned every week but when we have guests or especially LJ's parents coming into town I make sure everything is done.

In the guest room I put an Ipod/clock radio so they can charge their ipods. Fresh bottles of waters, fresh towels, of course the sheets are fresh and in the nightstand there is an assortment of single use packet medications that may be needed after a night of partying and single pack munchies below. It's like I'm running a hotel. In the guest bathroom I stock up on misc toiletries and I move any of my stuff to my dressing room so i don't get in their way.Baseboards get cleaned about twice a year and all the blinds get cleaned 3-4 times a year. Carpets get washed every 18 months. And we don't have pets or children. I am just weird like that.